Yoga and the Four Gateways of Speech: Is it Necessary?

By Faye Martins

The Four Gateways of Speech are a series of four contemplative questions that are considered prior to engaging in conversations with others, especially difficult conversations. This practice originated in the Sufi tradition. The four questions that are internally posed prior to initiating an exchange are: Is it true? Is what I am about to say kind? Is the conversation necessary and is my timing appropriate? Pausing for just a moment before offering your suggestions, advice or commentaries to another person gives you the opportunity to weigh both the merits and effects of what you are about to communicate. 

As Yoga practitioners, we are ultimately striving for peace and well being in our own hearts and minds. Extending and supporting others’ peace and well being is a natural outgrowth of this goal. By pausing to weigh whether or not the conversation you are about to initiate is true, kind, necessary and appropriately timed; you will be more free to choose to interact in such a way that is both freeing and uplifting to yourself and to the other person. If your commentary is not kind, true, necessary or appropriately timed, you may wish to refrain from the conversation all together. 

For example, often times we may experience and witness situations and events that are not quite “up to par.” Maybe a situation feels unfair, unprofessional or inaccurate. From the perspective of a Yoga student, you may occasionally find that you know more about the specific alignment of a pose, or the modification of a pose, than your Yoga teacher. This may present a situation where you feel it is necessary to let you teacher know that his or her instructions are inaccurate according to you own understanding. 

However, it may be the case that there are a number of ways to practice the asana you are concerned about, and that your Yoga teacher has learned a different way of aligning in the pose. Before interjecting during Yoga class, you may wish to consider whether or not you think it is truly necessary to publically comment on your teacher’s instructions. It may be more appropriate to respectfully ask for clarification and communicate your concerns privately after class. In this way, you will honor your own truth as well as respect your Yoga instructor’s knowledge of optimal alignment principals. 

A side note: There is more than one method for practicing any Yoga technique.  If you observe asana, meditation, pranayama, mudra, and mantra, each style emphasizes particular points, which make it unique.  At the same time, each Yoga instructor is indeed unique.

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

To see our selection of Online Yoga instructor training courses, please visit the following link.

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About Yoga for Diabetics

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500

Yoga can be an effective part of managing diabetes, due in part to the gentle massage that many poses give to internal organs and stimulating glands that regulate glucose levels in the blood.

Yoga Poses for Students with Diabetes

The most effective Yoga poses for diabetes treatment are those that gently compress the liver, stomach, pancreas and intestines. The gentle compression is helpful in stimulating each organ to function in the regulation of sugar levels in the body.

As a Yoga instructor, you can utilize poses (asanas) that are especially good for relieving diabetes related symptoms. Many of these asanas concentrate on the kidneys or lowering high blood pressure. The following asanas and sequences are a small sample of the possible movements recommended for diabetics.

Sun Salutation: This sequence generates heat within the body, cleanses your digestive system and engages the muscles in your abdomen.

Downward Facing Dog: Downward Facing Dog helps to alleviate high blood pressure and helps in digestion.

Triangle Pose: Another pose that can be difficult for beginners, Triangle helps aid in digestion.

Fish Pose: This pose is often difficult for beginners, but this asana has been labeled as, "the destroyer of all diseases." Fish Pose stretches and stimulates the organs of the belly.

Hero Posture: In addition to strengthening the pelvis, Hero is also good for helping with digestion and lowering blood pressure.

Corpse Pose: An easy and well-loved pose, the Corpse Pose helps remove impurities via perspiration and urine. Lying in corpse also helps lower a student's heart rate back to normal.

Depending on the student's ability, you can also incorporate mild inverted poses like Legs up the Wall (Viparita Karani). For new Yoga students, Child's Pose is a wonderfully gentle pose to help with circulation as well as relive stress and fatigue.

Yoga and Maintaining a Healthy Weight

Researchers estimate that much of the Type II diabetes, present around the world, could be reduced if patients maintained a healthy weight. Yoga can marginally help in weight loss, first by helping improve muscle tone through the use of asanas. With increased muscle tone, the fat that leads to diabetes can be lessened.

In addition, a regular Yoga practice promotes an awareness of one's self, including the issues that can lead to weight gain and the onset of Type II diabetes. Practicing Yoga promotes a healthy lifestyle, which leads many students to cut out the processed food in their diets and to begin eating fresh and whole foods instead.

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

To see our selection of Online Yoga instructor training courses, please visit the following link.

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FREE CONTENT: If you are a Yoga Teacher, Yoga studio, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles). Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, including the resource box above. Namaste!

Yoga for Belly Fat

By Faye Martins

There is widespread belief that an hour of physical yoga is enough cardiovascular activity to fulfill the average person's daily fitness needs. The truth is that many schools of yoga burn calories at a low rate and are therefore not the ideal form of exercise to target fat burn. Of course, it is also true that certain forms of yoga are considered more active and do burn calories while tightening and toning the body. 

Different styles and yoga instructors vary in the physical challenge they present. A person weighing 150 pounds doing an hour of Hatha yoga burns 180 calories, for example, while an hour of Ashtanga yoga burns 350 calories. Asthanga yoga is considered one of the most physically difficult schools of yoga, but even this form is outpaced by a slow run. In an hour, a runner going at a slow 12-minute-mile pace can still burn upwards of 500 calories.

So why practice yoga for belly fat?

It is true that yoga may burn fewer calories than running, but the overall health benefits like increased flexibility, improved focus, stronger bodies and relatively low risk of injury have a lot to say in favor of practicing yoga instead of or to complement other forms of fitness activities. However, because it may not burn calories at an intense pace like running or elliptical training can, yogis who would like to use yoga to burn belly fat must practice a targeted, intentional sequence of poses.

Four Tips for Practicing Yoga to Burn Belly Fat

1. Keep it moving! Choose a series that is designed to flow easily from pose to pose. Hold each pose for a minute or two and move quickly into the next pose. The fast flowing sequence should simultaneously tax your strength and elevate your heart rate, increasing the rate of calorie burn.

2. Target your practice! Make sure to use or design a sequence that strengthens your core muscles. Chair pose, plank pose, sun salutations and forward, side and back bends all target your abs, back and sides.

3. Finish and repeat! Do the pose sequence several times in order to get the maximum benefit from your practice; make sure your focus on the second and third repetitions is on correct posture since technique often begins to lag as your muscles fatigue.

4. Go long! Ideally, it takes 40 to 60 minutes of moderate exercise for your body to start burning through its fat reserves. So don't settle for a quick 30 minute session; you need to stay active for most of an hour in order to get the best fat-burning results.

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

To see our selection of Online Yoga teacher training courses, please visit the following link.

http://www.aurawellnesscenter.com/store/

FREE Yoga Report. FREE Yoga Newsletter. FREE Yoga Videos. Free Podcasts. Bonus: Free Yoga e-Book, “Yoga in Practice.”

FREE CONTENT: If you are a Yoga Teacher, Yoga studio, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles). Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, including the resource box above. Namaste!

Yoga for Childbirth

By Faye Martins

Many pregnant women want to find a way to strengthen their bodies for the arduous tasks of carrying a baby to term and staying strong through labor and delivery, but they worry about starting work out routines that might cause harm. Loosening joints and changes in equilibrium caused by pregnancy place women who choose to work out at a higher risk of injury. Because of these changes, doctors advise women to continue working out with the routine they were in before getting pregnant and to start exercising slowly if they were inactive before.

Yoga becomes the perfect solution for women looking to strengthen their minds and bodies for the task of childbearing. Not only does its physical focus on balance, strength and flexibility make it the ideal fitness opportunity for growing bellies and changing bodies, but its mental and spiritual disciplines can develop breath control and power of will.

Strengthening the Mind-Body Connection

Kundalini yoga is a popular source of prenatal yoga practice since its emphasis on the mind-body connection allows women to strengthen awareness of their bodies. The movements in Kundalini tend to focus on spine and navel activity under the principle of accessing a coiled energy located at the spinal base. On the other hand, Kundalini is not the only style of yoga pregnant women turn to aid in childbirth. Some women maintain their more physically challenging routines in other schools of yoga throughout pregnancy while others adopt modified versions referred to loosely as prenatal yoga.

Yoga instructors and experienced prenatal practitioners advocate yoga practice as a way to increase awareness of the body, which they say helps add focus and mental strength during the throes of labor. The difference between a yogi and non-yogi in childbirth is the level of control over the body, specifically while in pain, that a practitioner can exercise. In fact, many prenatal yoga instructors work solely with pregnant women because of their passion about seeing yogic principles worked out through the childbirth experience.

Physical Benefits of Yoga for Childbirth

Having a strong mental presence and awareness is clearly important for working through pain, but a strong body is also necessary. Research has demonstrated that women who begin the labor experience physically fit experience less pain and a much quicker postpartum recovery period. The idea behind this principle is that stronger core and pelvic muscles provide more support for the rapid changes the body undergoes throughout the process of childbirth. Similarly toned muscles enable a faster return to their previous shape during the postpartum period of recovery.

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division


To see our selection of Online Yoga teacher training courses, please visit the following link.


http://www.aurawellnesscenter.com/store/


FREE Yoga Report. FREE Yoga Newsletter. FREE Yoga Videos. Free Podcasts. Bonus: Free Yoga e-Book, “Yoga in Practice.”


FREE CONTENT: If you are a Yoga Teacher, Yoga studio, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles). Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, including the resource box above. Namaste!